


A Reservation for May Parker

by Blue (SocksandFluff)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Aunt May is the best mom, Family, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Heartwarming, Humor, May is badass, Peter Parker is a dork, Precious Peter Parker, SO MUCH FLUFF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 19:23:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20179435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SocksandFluff/pseuds/Blue
Summary: Sometimes, you know, May needed to be reminded just how important she was.Good thing she had a nephew to remind her every once and a while.





	A Reservation for May Parker

May Parker trudged up the stairs of the apartment complex, tired and worn from a long day at work, her purse slung over her shoulder, a shopping bag in the same hand, and her coat over her arm, the only free hand awkwardly trying to find the keys in her pocket.

The single-serving frozen lasagne weighed heavily in her shopping bag - reminding her that when she got home she would be alone for dinner.

Not that she was bitter about it at all - quite the opposite. Peter said he had something important to do, and seeing that it was Valentines’ day…

Well.

If Peter had a special someone, who was she to want his company while she ate dinner?

Besides, May thought, she was going to be likely terrible company anyway.

She and Ben didn’t make a big to-do about Valentine’s day. Maybe a shared breakfast in bed, maybe a lovely brunch, maybe some time with just him and her in the evening. It was never big, or flashy, but it was _them_.

_God_. She missed him so much.

Finding the keys, and pulling them out with a jangle, May unlocked the door.

Well, she’d eat her frozen lasagne, maybe get a glass of wine, read a book - go to bed early. Or maybe stay up and wait for Peter to come back and grill him for details till he got adorably flustered and she decided to take pity on him and relent on the questioning.

She opened the door.

Not looking up, she dropped the bags by the corner, tossed the keys in the bowl, and shut the door behind her.

What caught her attention first wasn’t the poster-board sign erected in front of the doorway or the fact that her keys hit another set in the bowl, but the smell that was wafting through the apartment.

Warm and delicious - it smelt of just-cooked food, of savoury and of sweet, and it invaded the entirety of the space.

“Peter?” May called out, looking at his set of keys in the bowl, Spider-themed keying and all. “Are you home?”

She turned.

And that’s when May noticed the poster board.

It was cut to look like a sort of standee sign, and on it was taped a piece of paper and somewhat sloppy attempt at neat handwriting: _Please wait to be seated_.

She blinked a few times before calling out again, “_Peter…?_”

There was a clatter from the kitchen and footsteps and she saw Peter streak across the hallway out of view. “One second!”

Baffled, she waited by the sign.

Peter re-emerged. He was wearing a suit jacket over top a plain white t-shirt, a sloppily tied black tie hung loosely around his neck. None of these were the most ridiculous part of what he was wearing - it might just have been the fake mustache stuck to his upper lip.

It didn’t even match his _hair_. It was large, fat and blonde.

“Ah! Hello! Do you have a reservation?” Peter asked, raising his eyebrows, a terrible accent on display. May wasn’t even sure if he was going for French, Italian, English or German.

“Peter, what are you doing?”

His eyebrows furrowed deeply, the accent still terrible, “Peter? There is no Peter here. I never heard of such a person. Feh. _Peter_.” He waved his hand as if it were an insult that she even asked the question. “Now. Do you have a reservation?” he asked again tapping the clipboard in his hand with a pencil.

“I don’t know,” she replied, a smirk pulling at her lips. She crossed her arms. “Do I?”

He sighed witheringly, playing the perfect part of the annoyed host. _“Name_ please?”

She chewed her lip trying to avoid laughing and she relented, “May Parker.”

Peter looked down at his clipboard, running the end of the pencil down it as if reading a list. “Parker… Parker… Ah! Yes. A reservation for May Parker. Right this way. You are a little early.”

“Oh, I am sorry.”

“This way.”

Without a further word, Peter turned on his heel and walked down the hall.

May stood there for a moment before following, letting loose a long sigh - loud enough so he could hear it - rolled her eyes _then_ following after him.

She was lead to their small living-room-attached dining area, and her breath stopped.

As a complete contrast to what Peter was wearing, the dining area looked _beautiful_.

The table was decked out lavishly. There was a lovely white table cloth, tall wineglasses, and neatly put out place-settings. There were even cloth-napkins and an arrangement of the most beautiful flowers in the center of it all.

“Oh, _Peter_-”

“Take a seat ma’am,” effectively cutting her off.

Peter pulled out the seat for her. As she sat, he said, “Your ‘date’ will be here shortly.” Then his mustache fell off.

May badly restrained a bark of a laugh.

Peter’s eyes widened, he shot down and grabbed it, sloppily putting it back on - upside down. “I am sorry about that. How embarrassing. Now- I shall leave you.”

He turned and left, and that’s when May realized what he said before.

“Wait- What did you mean by my ‘date’?” she called after him.

He didn’t reply.

“Peter?”

Still no reply.

“_Peter.”_

She sighed, letting herself sit down on the chair. She didn’t truly believe Peter was going to set her up with somebody - they both weren’t ready for that - but she still wanted to know what the _heck he was up to_.

Her nephew had been alone. In the apartment. For hours. Who _knew_ what he had done in that space of time.

Peter Parker was mischief incarnate and there was no knowing what he had planned for her. The flash in his eyes and the smirk on his lips was more than troubling.

May was _so_ proud of him. Couldn’t have raised him any better.

While she waited for him to return, she listened to the many sounds of rustling in the background.

May could hear his bedroom door open and close, the thudding of his socked feet in the hallway as he dashed to and fro. There was even the sound of him picking up the abandoned grocery bag by the door, and the open and shut of the freezer as Peter put away the lasagne.

Suddenly the smells of cooking got even stronger, as the oven opened and closed, and whatever it was that Peter had cooking smelt divine.

After all of that was when Peter finally reappeared.

And, of course, he was dressed differently but _just_ as silly as before.

Gone was the suit jacket, the white t-shirt, the sloppy tie, and the mustache. In their place was a bright pink pre-tied bow-tie, a t-shirt that Peter clearly got from one of those cheapo street vendors. It had to be the most hideous shade of pink May had ever seen in her life. It didn’t even _go_ with the pink of the tie. And, of course, the shirt was absolutely adorned with the grossest and most clip-art inspired hearts.

She loved it; absolutely _loved_ it.

He sat down. “Sorry about that! The bathroom had a long lineup.” He held out a flower for her from behind his back.

She took it, but raised an eyebrow. “Long lineup? ”

“Yeah - they should install more stalls in this place. I mean, what with it being so popular and all.”

“Peter -” she interrupted with a chuckle - twirling the incredibly gorgeous carnation between her fingers before she tucked it safely with the rest of the flowers on the table “- Thank you for the flower it’s beautiful, but- What are you doing?”

Peter blinked at her, his big brown eyes looking ever-so-innocent, the quirk of his mouth belaying otherwise. “Whatever do you mean?” he replied, “It’s Valentine’s day! I’m taking you on a date! Can’t a nephew just show appreciation for his aunt on Valentine’s day?”

She was full-on smiling, heart warm, but kept playing along, “Uh-huh. A date?” She saw Ben in the warm of Peter’s eyes.

“Yep,” he grinned. “You and me.”

An even warmer fondness bubbled up in her and stole away every last vestige of tiredness that might have lingered. Peter’s expression was wide open, a genuine hope that what he was doing was making her happy, despite how mischievous he had been before.

“Thank you, Peter,” she whispered, full of meaning, before she decided to keep the play between them going, “So,” she leaned back, and gestured, “Did you meet the host-guy?” she asked with mock frustration.

Peter brightened, then gestured with his thumb, “The really incredibly handsome one with the mustache? Why? What happened?”

“Yeah - you know…” May said, “When I asked about you, he said there were ‘No Peter’s here’. He looked disgusted with the very idea of there being a Peter here.”

Peter looked mock-shocked, a hand on his chest. “What? Rude! To think I complimented his absolute class and style and his mustache. Very rude for such a handsome man!”

“That’s what I thought,” she replied seriously.

“Well - I guess he’s not getting a tip.”

“No, I don’t think so. Also, he’s the host, you don’t tend to _tip_ the hosts.”

“Oh. Well.” Peter furrowed his brows. “Still. How rude for such a beautiful man.”

“Silly.” May smiled. She then looked around as if admiring the ‘restaurant’. “How much did you spend on this place, hmm? Seems pretty fancy to me…” she said, plucking at the corner of the red fabric napkin.

“_So much. _Only the top dollar for you May,” Peter grinned cheekily.

“So - what is this place’s specialty?” May asked, genuinely curious of what Peter had cooking.

“Oh, there’s a menu under the plate,” Peter said cheerily. “Take a look!”

She raised an eyebrow, and indeed, there was a menu, tucked out of sight under the plate so it could be revealed when Peter wanted it to be.

It was a neat leaflet, with drawings of vines and grapes and a wine bottle on the front, and on the inside, the menu written in that same attempt at neat hand-writing as the board by the door had.

It read as follows:

**Casa Della Famiglia Parker** _   
**Valentine’s Day Special Menu** _

__**Main Entrée**  
Fancy Grilled Cheese (With tomato soup)  
Chicken Primavera

__**Drinks**  
Sparkling Apple Juice  
Sparkling Grape Juice

**Desserts**  
Chocolate Chip Cookies  
Cupcakes

May didn’t know what to say, at first. She had expected that Peter probably cooked her something - but not _this_ much.

“Well?” Peter asked expectantly. “What would you like?”

She looked from him back to the menu. “Peter did you really go out of your way -”

“No no no,” Peter put up a finger. “_Play along._ Don’t worry about that. Don’t worry about _any_ of this. Pick something.” He then said, “I mean - I am _sure_ that the people here will box up _anything_ extra and let you have it for lunch tomorrow and the next day or whatever. You know, ‘cause they are super duper awesome like that and understand you are very busy and likely need nice food to take to work with you. Or something.”

May chuckled at the sheer firmness of Peter’s voice. “Okay, okay. I get it. I’ll pick something. How _about_…” she pointed at the menu. “The ‘fancy’ grilled cheese. Whatever it is that makes them fancy, I have no idea.”

Peter smiled wide in excitement. “And to drink?” he asked, eyes flashing.

“Oh… let’s go _crazy,” _May tossed the menu down on the plate. “The Sparkling Apple Juice. Let’s live it up.”

Peter jumped up from his seat. “You got it!”

“Peter.”

Peter stopped.

“Isn’t there,” she teased with a smile, “a _waiter_ to do this?”

“Oh,” Peter’s eyebrows furrowed. “Oh shit I forgo- I mean. Um- this is a… self-serve fancy restaurant?” he supplied, and she could see him mentally cursing himself for having remembered to have a ‘host’ but forgetting that there needed to be a waiter as well.

“Oh I _see_,” May said folding her hands under her chin. “How cost-efficient.”

“Yeah! S’why they can make them fancy grilled cheese,” Peter said backing away from the dining table. “Just one sec!”

Peter disappeared.

May shook her head, looking down, unable to contain a smile.

She hadn’t a lot of time to dwell on the warm feeling of being so incredibly loved she was getting because Peter reappeared holding a tray in a matter of seconds.

Carefully, Peter pushed aside the vase of flowers and set the tray down.

There was a plate that was full of quarters grilled cheeses of many kinds. Some looked to have ham in them, some bacon, there were varieties of cheeses.

A small bowl of sandwich pickles was also provided, as well as two bowls of tomato soup. One of which Peter put on May’s plate before he put the other on his own.

He was grinning ear-to-ear as he opened up the bottle of sparkling apple juice and poured it into May’s glass.

May watched him fondly as he fussed, picking a few of the quarters of the sandwiches to try, tucking them along the side of the bowl.

She knew he wanted her to play along, but she couldn’t keep it in any longer.

After Peter settled down the bottle on the table, she reached out and took his hand. “Peter.”

He looked at her, almost worried.

“Peter,” she repeated, rubbing her thumb over her child’s hand. “Thank you so, so much. I love you.”

Peter gripped her hand back. “Anything for you, May. I just hope this makes you happy. You- you really deserve it. You really do. I know Ben isn’t here anymore but- You might be my Aunt, but you make a pretty great Mom too. I wanna show you that.”

Oh he was going to _kill_ her at this rate.

“Oh Peter, you don’t have to show me that. I _know_ it already. My silly silly child.” May tilted her head and reached out and cupped his cheek before patting it playfully. “Such a soppy dork. Just like Ben.”

“I think you’re pretty dorky too. You raised me too, you know.”

Her heart fluttered happily. Yes, she did.

“To us both being dorks? Oh, and to Valentine’s day?”

She laughed, an raised her glass, “To being the best dorks - and to Valentine’s day.”

The glasses clinked.

**Author's Note:**

> I am ALIVE.
> 
> I am working on a few oneshots in the hopes that it gets me back in the groove enough for me to start working on That Neighbourhood Menace. I would absolutely love to get back to it.
> 
> For now? Enjoy Peter being a dork and giving his Aunt some love and appreciation. 
> 
> She's pretty awesome.


End file.
